by One of my favourite snacks when I lived in Australia were cheese scrolls from the local bakery. In fact, as a child of parents who ran a busy Vietnamese bakery, I often lived for the moment when the cheese scrolls came fresh out of the oven. Even better when there were onions in the mixture. My parents also made pizza scrolls as a variation, but I had a soft spot for just the plain cheese version.
So when I came across this recipe for Three Cheese Bread in Rachel Allen’s latest cookbook, Rachel’s Everyday Kitchen, I knew I had to make it soon.
If you were to quickly browse through my cookbook reviews, you will notice that Rachel Allen is one of my favourite cookbook authors, and her new cookbook has provided much inspiration in the kitchen as of late. Rachel’s Everyday Kitchen is beautifully photographed with many tempting recipes ideal for everyday cooking. In keeping with Rachel Allen’s usual style, the recipes are always straightforward and delicious.
This Cheese Bread might require a bit of preparation time (as is the case for most breads) but it’s worth the effort for something deliciously savoury at breakfast, as an accompaniment to a soup or stew, or even on its own as a snack.
And as Rachel Allen hints at the start of the recipe, it’s a great way of using up leftover bits of hard cheese which you might have in your fridge. While there is no such thing as “leftover cheese” in our home, this bread has been a clever and tasty way of sneaking some extra calories into the diet of our 16-month old fusspot who could survive on bread alone if he could have his way. I was one proud mother to see him eat this cheese bread greedily.
For a printable recipe, please scroll down.
Cheese Bread
Ingredients
- 215 ml (¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons) warm water
- 4 g (1 teaspoon) caster sugar, (superfine sugar)
- 7 g (2 teaspoons) dried yeast
- 350 g (2 ⅓ cup) white bread flour
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 75 g (3 oz) Parmesan, finely grated
- 75 g (3 oz) Gruyère, finely grated
- 75 g (3 oz) Cheddar, finely grated
Instructions
- Mix together the warm water, sugar and yeast in jug or bowl. Leave to stand in a warm place for about 5 minutes.
- Sift the flour and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add the oil and yeast mixture to the flour.
- Fit a dough hook into the stand mixer and mix slowly until the dough has come together in a wet and sticky ball.
- Knead the dough on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and springs back when you poke it.
- Grease a large bowl with some olive oil.
- Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a clean teatowel.
- Place the bowl in a warm place to about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.
- When the dough is ready, punch it back to release the air.
- Lightly flour the kitchen bench and roll out the dough into a rectangle measuring about 20 cm x 30 cm (8 x 12 inches) and about 5 mm thick.
- Sprinkle the grated cheese all over the dough.
- With the longest side of the dough facing you, roll up the dough, but not too tightly.
- Using a sharp knife, or a serrated knife, cut the dough evenly into 8 slices.
- Line a 23 cm/9 inch baking tin with baking paper.
- Arrange the slices of dough, cut side up, in the tin.
- Cover the cake tin with a clean teatowel and return it to a warm place to prove for about 30 minutes or until doubled in size again.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F (without fan) (but be careful if you are using the same oven to prove your dough!).
- Bake the bread for 20-25 minutes, or until it is golden brown on top.
- Carefully remove the bread from the tin and place the bread back in the oven, directly on the oven rack, to bake for a further 10-15 minutes so that the bottom and sides can crisp up.
Kitchen Notes
- If you don’t have fast-acting yeast, you could instead use 1½ teaspoons of dried yeast or 15 g (½ oz) fresh yeast and proceed as per the recipe. With fast-acting yeast, you don’t really need to let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.
- VARIATIONS
Feel free to play around with different types of hard cheese in this recipe. We don’t usually have Cheddar in our home so I frequently substitute it with Gruyère, Emmental or Comté. A smoked hard cheese is also lovely in this recipe. - STORAGE TIPS
This bread is best eaten the day it is made, but it will keep well for a day or two when well-wrapped in a bread bin. - RECIPE CREDIT
Recipe adapted from Rachel’s Everyday Kitchen by Rachel Allen - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Oh my goodness, this bread looks PERFECT! Such a yummy recipe!
Thanks, Katrina! It’s a lovely recipe which lends itself well to some personal changes.
Thanh, love the pics and love the post. Cheesy bread for breakfast, count me in 🙂
Thanks, Rushi! I don’t know about France, but the closest I can find to cheesy bread in Switzerland are cheesy puff pastry straws … not quite the same but still yummy 🙂
That’s true, sometimes you’re too lazy to make bread, it’s about the time, you have to be aware during some hours, but the result worths it!! This, adding onion, sounds really really good to me.
You’ll have excited seeing your little boy devouring the same bread as you made as a child 😀
One more day, cute photos, and fantastic step by step, I love it!!!
Have a nice weekend, Thanh!!
PD: Crispy or caramelized onion, or only raw or sauté? 😛
PPD: 16 months, time flies!!
Hi Paula,
Yes, bread-making is always a time-consuming process but the results are always worth it. I’m not always organised enough to prepare it in time for breakfast but I love eating warm bread at any time of the day 🙂
If you were to add onions to the mixture, I would cook some thinly sliced brown onions in butter until they are soft and only lightly golden. Although, caramelised onions sound lovely too! I would then spread the cooked onions over the bread dough and then sprinkle the cheese on top. I plan to make a cheese and onion version soon, but maybe only half because my little boy will run far, far away if he sees any vegetables! 😉 And yes, I can’t believe he is now 16 months old! The wonderful thing is he already loves to stand on a stool to watch me use the KitchenAid 🙂
Thanh, loving the look of these savoury rolls, very similar to the method of making cinnamon rolls that I’ve taken to! So I’m sure if I can make those, I can make these too.
Many add-ins going through my mind….the sky’s the limit!
Great recipe.
Hi Anna,
Indeed, this recipe can be easily modified with different fillings. I might add some ham or bacon next time. Or I might end up making pizza rolls 🙂
Did you parents ever make cheese and Vegemite scrolls? When I was a very poor University student, I used to buy one to soak up the booze after a night of drinking. They were huge and tasty….and best of all, they were cheap!
No, they didn’t make cheese & Vegemite scrolls, so it was a good excuse for me to buy them from our competitors 😉 My son loves Vegemite on his toast in the morning and I keep thinking I should make this Three Cheese Bread with some Vegemite – I know it will be a hit!
As a way of using up left over bread, my mum would spread slices with Vegemite and the sprinkle cheese on top, cut them into fingers (soldiers) and bake them in a slow oven until really crispy. They were so yummy, just as a snack or with soup. I should make some for my kids – we always have leftover bread….
That sounds like a lovely way of using up leftover bread! We rarely have leftover bread but, when we do, it’s often destined to become breadcrumbs which I will stash away in the freezer. I’ll keep your mum’s recipe in mind for next time!
Thanh, did you do something different with your blog? It might just be me, but it looks different from the last time I was here. Whatever it is, it looks fantastic. Your photos are always so beautiful and the step by step shots are crazy helpful. You’ve combined two of my most favourite things in the world here: cheese ‘n carbs. It’s always worth the effort when I’m going to be having fresh baked cheesy bread in my life! I love this post, girl.
Thanks, Nancy! Glad you liked this post 🙂 I love doing the step-by-step photos when I have the time but those moments are quite rare now. Haven’t really changed anything on the blog but glad it looks good to you 🙂
You not only convinced me to make cheese breads (how I love that smell of baked bread with melted cheese!), but also to add some of Rachel Allen’s books to my ever growing cookbook collection. Thanks!
I have all of Rachel Allen’s cookbooks and can recommend all of them! In fact, I made the Korean Beef with Avocado Rice from Rachel’s Food For Living for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. I’ve made it before but forgot how good it was!
Oh YUM!
These would be so delicious. I love scrolls too, and the cheesier the better
Gourmet Getaways
Love the step by step photos here! Thank you – they were so helpful. Lovely, easy recipe. I also added some sliced ham and it was delicious!
I can’t wait to try it out! Good idea! Looks very tasty! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Thanh, I’m going to make these for a school bake sale. Do you think I would be able to make this as mini/smaller scrolls and if so, what changes would you make to the temp/baking time?
Hi Bernice,
Yes, of course, you could make these as mini scrolls. In which case, I would roll out the dough as a bigger rectangle than stated in the recipe to make smaller scrolls. The baking time would be similar, but I would start checking at 15-20 mins. If you have a thermometer, the internal temperature of the bread should be about 85°C/185°F to indicate that it is cooked. Hope you will enjoy this recipe ????